“We know that children love wearing their Patriots jerseys, but may not understand why parents don’t want them wearing their Hernandez jerseys anymore,” team spokesperson Stacey James said. “We hope this opportunity to exchange those jerseys at the Patriots ProShop for another player’s jersey will be well received by parents.”

The Pats don’t need to do anything else to convince me they’re a class organization.

Even when they played in Seattle last season, I was surprised and happy to find that all the Patriot fans I encountered were pretty cool. No gloating when they were up, no over-the-top trash-talking or bragging about multiple titles when they got beat.

Have always respected Kraft’s Patriots and they only bolstered my respect by handling this ugly situation as quickly and well as they did.

oh really, where do you think he got the money for guns, bullets, rental cars etc. from the 12.5
mil bonus the Pats gave him because he was such a model citizen. Oh please, and comparing these murders to the way the Jets do football business is disrespectful to the people who were killed and to their family so lets get a little perspective here.
This is real life not a game!

Its clearly to limit the amout of people wearing hernandez jerseys and causing a scene, or modifying a hernandez jersey, maybe painting some blood on it or something as a gag.

The NFL and the pats know its a real small price to pay to get all his jerseys off the backs of those who would do something perhaps controversial with them…

And im sure theres a small part (probably real small) that want to keep fans buying jerseys in the future and give them some insurance if that player gets arrested for murder (or another serious crime), they’ll have an out.

The -2013- Patriots have me respect. This was a great move by the organization.

“We know that children love wearing their Patriots jerseys, but may not understand why parents don’t want them wearing their Hernandez jerseys anymore,” team spokesperson Stacey James said. “We hope this opportunity to exchange those jerseys at the Patriots ProShop for another player’s jersey will be well received by parents.”

I’m glad someone is putting their foot down, and there doing it for all the right reasons.

Wow whatever ever happened to innocent until proven guilty? I mean yeah it looks bad for him right now but he still has not been convicted of anything. I just don’t get how the Patriots or anyone else can get away with this. Like I said it sure looks like he did it but still what’s the rush judgement? Anyway do the Patriots really think people are going to forget he played for them? People still haven’t forgotten about Spygate.

Not sure why the league has scrubbed his statistics on their website. What happened to “innocent until proven guilty?” BTW, I think he probably played a role in this whole mess, he may even have murdered the victim, but since I dont have the facts, I will withhold any judgement until Hernandez has had his day in court. I just wish the NFL would do the same.

Wonder why the Ravens didn’t do something classy like this with Ray Ray? Let me guess the Ravens investigated and came up with their unbiased assessment. They accepted Rays explanation that the dumber was a good place to get his white suit cleaned.

Off topic question to pats fans. What does your receiving core looking like now? Is there a guy nobody knows about that’s decent or are you really gonna have to go out and get somebody? Brady makes mediocre receivers look great (branch). Just wondering for fantasy leagues

Wow whatever ever happened to innocent until proven guilty? I mean yeah it looks bad for him right now but he still has not been convicted of anything. I just don’t get how the Patriots or anyone else can get away with this.
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The Pats are taking a page out of Hernandez ” how to get away with it” book.

Innocent until proven guilty means the GOVERNMENT cannot punish you until you are convicted.
I bet you are the same geniuses who always scream “Freedom of speech!” when someone if fired for saying something bad.
Take a civics course people!

As other people have pointed out repeatedly, innocent until proven guilty applies to the way a judge or jury should view a client. It makes no sense outside of that. And there are plenty of facts available to everyone right now, the only thing missing is two lawyers “interpreting” the facts for you. If you need that to figure out things, I feel sorry for you.

Good move by the Patriots. The NFL removed his stats? Why? Pretending he was never in the NFL does nothing. Also, his stats impact more than just him. (TE comparisons/rankings, etc.) Replacing his picture with a silhouette would be fine but removing everything is just dumb and (over) reactionary

Think or feel whatever you want about the Patriots, they’re handling this situation the way a team is supposed too. Even if, just in some crazy way possible AH is found not guilty and a couple years down the road he’s eligible to return to football…the pats want nothing to do with them. Might as well go trade in a worthless jersey at this point for a Brady, Mayo, Wilfork or Gronk one. Heck, why not even a Belichick hoodie!

Scrubbing the stats seems like a bit much. What do his stats have to do with him being a murderer?
What are they going to do next, vacate victories of games he payed in?
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That bird has flown. The league already missed its chance by not vacating the 3 tainted pats SB wins.

Why scrub his stats off the sites? Did they do that to every other player arrested for a serious crime or felony? I don’t agree with what Hernandez has been involved in but to erase him like he never played in the league is something I don’t agree with either. This is really sad for the victim and his family but also Hernandez’s family as well. I know I couldn’t handle what he’s facing, that kind of prison term doesn’t suit a 156 lb white boy… I can’t comprehend why he’d shoot somebody over talking to another group in a nightclub, there has to be soooooo much we’ve not heard. July 24th will be the day we hear quite a bit more when Aaron goes back to court.

This is a very good PR move for the Patriots. In fact, downright brilliant and this coming from a Phins Fan.

However, let’s keep this in perspective. The amount of refund in a monetary form is less than Kraft spent on Lunch today. The Jersey’s are wholesale cost of about $22 and the volume was no where near a Welker or Brady unit. We are talking about a few thousand bucks for this much “Good PR”… Priceless.

for all those saying the Patriots are doing all the right things, why limit it to just a single weekend? what if you are out of town next weekend, a pretty good bet considering where the 4th of July falls this year.

But watch what happens next, Hernandez has so much street cred in South Central LA that his jersey will be the required attire for all gang bangers, blood & the crips.

The slimeballs running the show, Bile Bellyache and Krafty The Clown know that Hernandez jerseys will appreciate in value at a huge rate. They realized that they sold them way too cheap at the time and are trying to get them back for even cheaper.

I think anytime a player is cut before his contract is up or traded before it is up they should offer to exchange the jersey of the cut/traded player. How many different Tebow jerseys are out there in three years?

As much as I’ve been hammering the Pats on this one, and as much as I despise them, I have to admit this move shows class. I doubt any other teams would do this, even my beloved team (which will remain nameless). Nice move, Kraft. Now, I have to break all of my fingers for writing the previous sentence.

Not sure why this thread brings out more Ray Lewis stuff…but lets look at facts. Lewis was THREATENED with being charged with attempted murder simply so he would turn on the people who actually committed the crime. The police knew he did not kill anyone. The Ravens, just the Pats are doing, did their own investigation…talked to their contacts..and were confident Lewis did not commit murder. So they backed him.

And he eventually was not charged with murder. Why ? Bc he did not commit a murder.

The Patriots, in doing their due diligence..as the Ravens did…clearly have information that has lead them to believe Aaron did in fact commit these crimes. And they are distancing themselves as much as they can as a result.

But hey…lets not let the facts of these cases get in the way of ignorance.

for all those asking about this innocent until proven guilty garbage. I believe there is enough to say there is a degree of guilt here. maybe we don’t know the degree but a “not guilty” O.J. verdict will not make him innocent regardless of the success of his lawyers.

Should this dude not be found guilty or, more importantly, is fully acquitted of these crimes, there is gonna be a lot of mud on a lot of faces afterwards. Point is, speculation is one thing but outright accusal is something else entirely. Media does no one any good. All they do is sensationalize the bad then give less than modest acknowledgment of the positive. And we are wired to believed the negative nearly immediately and doubt the positive just as quickly. We are all messed up in the head.

Honestly, this is possibly karma for how the Patriots treated Welker. I mean, someone in the front office had to have known a little bit about Hernandez…maybe they thought if they gave him a huge contract that he would chill. I bet now they wish they gave that contract to Welker.

Hernandez has not been convicted yet. He may never be convicted, just like Murder Ray. People still wear Ray Lewis jerseys. Innocent until proven guilty? Guess not. Do people really think the victim in this wasn’t involved in any dirt himself? No one deserves to die but I’m sure this guy wasn’t a model citizen. Not saying Hernandez is right, just saying every story has three sides.

It would be wiser to leave the window open to trade in these jerseys indefinitely in order to get as many jerseys that bear the Patriots logo and Hernandez’s name off the streets as possible. The less there are, the less there will be reminders that he once wore the uniform, and that they could become a gang favorite on eBay.

Steelers fan, true blue here. Usually detest the Patriots and gray hoodies but I admire how they have handled the situation. It’s a situation that could have happened to any club that took a chance on a player – and they all do. They kept their mouths shut until the had all of the information they could. Made a decision, didn’t waffle. Moved forward – and are making an attempt to make it better for the Patriots fans that believed in them. There is no way they can make it right for everyone who ever bought an H jersey (even on ebay) but they are making an honest effort. I hope they move forward, do well….just not better than my team.

Great move Pats! Now, an enterprising entrepreneur can offer to buy all the Hernandez jerseys off the Pats for pennies and sell them to gang members for hundreds of dollars. As I understand, it could be the official uniform of the Bloods.

Now the big question is do you trade in your jersey or do you hold onto it? Will one of these jerseys be worth $500 as a collectible in a few years? Will one of these jerseys sell for $1,000 on ebay in a few years?

Wonder why the Ravens didn’t do something classy like this with Ray Ray? Let me guess the Ravens investigated and came up with their unbiased assessment. They accepted Rays explanation that the dumber was a good place to get his white suit cleaned.

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The White Suit is nothing more than a shiny object that attracts Patriot fans and their glimmer of hope that their hero Hernandez will ever be on the field again as a Patriot.

Yes, the Patriots have a lot to learn from the Ravens. They were schooled the last 4 playoff games in Gillette Stadium.

Something classy? Like offer something that 90% of their fans can’t use, for the sole purpose of their Patriot Way self-righteousness. Face it…If they want to correct the situation it is not blaming Hernandez it is blaming their decision to ever draft the guy.